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The Darjeeling Limited

The flawed idea of poor yet colourful, exotic and mystic India is rather unfamiliar, strange and hard to digest

Namrata Joshi

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W
hen a film from the West bases itself in India and talks of the country offering a "life-altering spiritual journey," my problems immediately start coming to fore. Somehow, the view of soul-saviour India doesn’t seem to ring true—it’s their perception of us than a reality we would have lived. I found the poor yet colourful, exotic and mystic India of the Darjeeling Limited rather unfamiliar, strange and hard to digest, the dedication to Satyajit Ray and the presence of Irrfan notwithstanding.

The sense of place and time seems to be rather thin, the authenticity of locales and details of journey questionable. But the flawed idea of India apart, the film, in itself, is interesting in other ways. It boasts of the Anderson brand of oddball characters. Here we have three brothers, all losers in their own right—Jack (Schwartzman) is a writer facing relationship issues, Peter (Brody) is scared of his impending fatherhood and Francis (Wilson) is a control freak businessman who chalked out the train trip across India for the brothers to rediscover their fading bonds. It’s a complicated family situation with relationships in a state of utter disarray. The brothers haven’t met in about a year since their father’s funeral, the mother (Huston) has gone off to the Himalayas to become a nun. The theme of a dysfunctional family is serious but Anderson treats it with a breezy touch. The memories, the fights of the brothers over the father’s possessions, the sibling rivalry—all hold well. The snake brought into the train and the brothers’ eventual ouster from it adds to the zaniness. But the one sequence, which everyone found rather affecting, left me quite cold. It is when the brothers save two drowning kids but can’t rescue the third and then stay on to attend his funeral in the village. The encounter with poverty and deprivation, the incident becoming a means for the brothers to grasp the deeper meaning of life—all of it turns out to be a rather artificial, sentimental exercise. It also made me wonder if Irrfan (as the father of the child) should accept any and every role that comes his way in order to strengthen his links with the West.

High Fives

Bollywood

1. Jannat
2. Bhoothnath
3. Don Mutthu Swami
4. Narnia: Prince Caspian (dubbed)
5. Dhoom Dadakka

Hollywood

1. Indiana Jones: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
2. Narnia: Prince Caspian
3. Iron Man
4. What Happens in Vegas...
5. Speed Racer

Music Video

1. Live in Las Vegas: New Day (Celine Dion)
2. Arde El Cielo (Maná)
3. Adventures of Mimi (Mariah Carey)
4. Para Siempre (Vicente Fernandez)
5. Live at Montreux 2004 (Chick/Rodgers)

Courtesy: Film Information

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